Decision Making Process

All ideas or proposed changes that have a District wide impact will move through the Participatory Governance process via appropriate committees. (In times of emergency, some decisions will be made through Emergency Operations Command (EOC)  per BP3505 Links to an external site. and AP3505 Links to an external site.: Emergency Response Plan.) Final recommendations and decisions move through the governance process to the College Planning Committee (CPC). CPC considers the recommendations and provides and final recommendation to the President. Should the President disagree with a governance recommendation, it is incumbent upon the President to state in writing the rationale. Recommendations that require Board of Trustees approval will move forward as action items to the board agenda. Informational recommendations may also be given to the Board as an information agenda item or report.

1. 1. Propose action. 
   2. Relevant governance committee(s) will discuss and evaluate the proposed action through inclusive dialogue and may request additional data or wish to confer with other committees, councils, etc.
   3. A formal recommendation may move forward to CPC to discuss and evaluate through inclusive dialogue. The committee chair or designee(s) forwarding the recommendation is expected to introduce the written recommendation to CPC in person. Should the chair or designee be unavailable, the recommendation must be accompanied by a written summary of committee feedback and rationale for the recommendation. Any recommendation moving forward must be provided in time to allow for sufficient dialogue, data and information request fulfillment, and other consultation.
   4. CPC will provide feedback and any requested changes to the proposing committee. This will be documented through minutes and communicated to the committee chair by the President in writing. This may require returning to Step 1 or 2 as appropriate.
   5. CPC makes final recommendation to President. The President can ask for additional information and if s/he does not accept recommendation the rationale must be stated in writing.
   6. President presents recommendation as action item to Board of Trustees to discuss and evaluate and may request additional information or consult with others as appropriate. Should the Board of Trustees not accept the recommendation their rationale should be clearly reflected in the minutes.
   7. After adoption the action item is implemented. The implementation task is typically assigned to an employee, office, service, and/or department.

After implementation, the action should be assessed or evaluated for effectiveness and informing future action proposals to complete the cycle of Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation. The means and method of the evaluation depend on the action item and should be defined when developing the action item. For example, an action item to implement a process change to improve student outcomes should contain a specific numeric goal and timeline.